Do you help your A level child with homework?

[TheMatriarch]

Dd keeps asking for help. The subjects she’s taking are not ones I’m familiar with. My standard advice is to ask her tutor, ask friends doing the same subject or to google it.

I did a bit but only because the one she asked about where what I did my degree in. Mainly we just talked about it (like a debate) because we are both a bit nerdy in the subject. r she'd tell me what they'd learned if it was an area I wasn't so hot on - but only because I was genuinely interested.

I would sometimes help her with proof reading important stuff and she'd tell me about stuff she'd really enjoyed in other subjects and we'd chat about it (in pretty related subjects that I had a chance of grasping!)

But I'm not sure how you could help if you're not even familiar with the subject area. Eg if oe of my DC wanted to ask me about physics for example, I'd just be able to nod and smile, not help!

Sorry about the typos

Not there yet but I will certainly help. Even talking through how to find the answer or write the answer is a help. Not knowing the subject is probably better as there is less of a tendency to answer it for them when the idea is to teach them how to work it out for themselves.

Not in the UK but at similar standard to A Level. Depends what the subject was, there was not a chance in hell I could have helped DD in biology or english (I barely passed English ). Sometimes geography if it relates to a particular area that I know about (e.g DD did an assignment on a town we use to live in).

I have an accounting degree and I liked maths at High School so did a lot of help in statistics / maths and economics. Tbh if you have expertise in that area I see no reason not to help.

I’ve been trying my best to help, but I really don’t understand, so my help is limited to googling with her. This isn’t good enough.

I got the odd bit of help (essay structuring from my mum with no subject knowledge, sometimes a bit of maths help from my dad who knew the stuff). I didn't expect any help on stuff they didn't know though! Nor did I necessarily want their help tbh, but they insisted

My mum taught herself most of two of my sibling's subject so she could teach it to them and help them revise... not sure that did them any favours tbh!

i've been able to help with my degree subject. where my son was struggling and he needed at least a B grade, we did at one stage pay for some extra tutoring for a short while. you need to be quite specific about what they need help on though as this can easily gobble up tonnes of cash

Only if she asks
But two of the subjects she's doing are my specialism and dh is pretty good in too, the third subject is dh's pet subject.

I think when you don't understand then googling together can be very comforting for her, but encourage her to ask too.

I did but I’m a teacher.

I help dd with her higher homework- but she is dyslexic / dyscalculic so needs a bit of support. I scribe for her a lot (and try not to write things in my words but use hers!) It is definitely helpful for her as she can concentrate on content rather than the writing.

What are the subjects OP? I'm sure the MN hive mind could point you both in the direction of helpful resources.

I could barely help my DSs at all due to the subjects they took. DD who is in y12 is studying subjects I am more familiar with and wanting to study for a degree I have a masters in and I do discuss her work with her. Suggestions like have you thought about this example or this angle for government and politics, testing her on french vocabulary and grammar in advance of classroom tests etc

My mum used to help with my Alevel chem homework. She had a degree in it. Until my chem teacher asked her not to, as I did better without her help

I test her on German vocabulary and have watched some German movies (with subtitles) so she can discuss them with someone. I don't speak German, but these are things that she needs another person to get involved in.

The Physics and Maths is beyond my ability, but I make encouraging and/or sympathetic noises as appropriate. DH is more equipped to help with those and will do so if she's stuck. Mostly she doesn't need help, though. Just needs to get her head down and get on with it.

DD is doing subjects I am not at all familiar with. Quite relieved really, as dd has always had a tendency to blame her tools rather than her workmanship!
The main thing I do now is 'support' which seems to consist of funding the purchase of lots of files and folders and dividers and organisers....most of which end up under her bed as they 'didn't work'.
Are there not forums etc for A levels students to discuss their work? Could these help?

Yes, but only if I know the stuff they are doing. Will guide towards looking it up - internet, books etc. rather than doing it for them if can't help. But my 17 yr old has aspergers and needs help in different ways to the other boys, but will help current 15 yr old if he needs it when he's doing his A-levels too.

I didn't. I'm a maths teacher and would have happily helped with maths, but she never needed help with maths. She could have done with some help with chemistry, which is dh's degree subject, but he did his degree almost 30 years ago and has never used it since, so he was at a stage of googling it with her.

DD pretty much did it herself. Her teachers were around to help if she needed it, and she googled stuff quite a bit. There's loads of you tube videos of certain aspects of a lot of subjects, done by teachers or examiners so they're often pretty good.

Not at all so far. After years of cajoling her through every word of English and virtually sitting her eng lang GCSE for her it's bliss

She's doing maths, further maths and computer science. I could probably manage to proofread the title